"I think it would be best if we broke up," Woohyun blurted. 

Her heart dropped and her stomach sank. 

"W-What? W-Why?" She stuttered, tears threatening to spill. 

"I don't think this relationship will last.." He turned away, not wanting to look at her in the eyes. 

"B-But.." She bit her lip. 

"It's not you, it's me," He slightly smiled. "I don't think I have what it takes to make that commitment.."

"I can wait!" She blurted. 

"I'm afraid I don't have time.." 

"I'm sorry, Chorong," He stood up and walked away from her. She sat there, staring straight at the  movie ticket for the movie they just watched. 

Chorong hiccuped and the first tear spilled out. Then the other, then another, and another. 

Her hand clenched into fists as she continued to silently cry. She covered to prevent sounds from coming out. 

Woohyun, off in the distance looked back, his heart aching. 

"I'm sorry," He whispered. "This is the only way to give you less pain,"

~~~~~~

There was no contact from Woohyun for three months. 

Chorong turned dull, lifeless and emotionless. Woohyun was the one who fixed her from her last heart break, but he just broke her even harder. Her dorm roomate, Son Naeun, was starting to get worried about her friend's condition. She went to countless psychologists, but they couldn't find anyway to help her. All she did was cry in the meetings. 

Fed up, she dialed her boyfriend, Myungsoo. And stood outside of the dorm room, in case Chorong would hear his name again. 

"Naeun?"

"Put Woohyun on the phone, now."

"Naeun-"

"I said, put Nam Woohyun on the phone!"

"He's not here."

"Don't lie to me, Kim Myungsoo! I know you're hiding something from me."

"Naeun, I'm sorry."

"Do you how much pain Chorong unnie is in? I've taken her to thirteen psychologists, I beg and plead for her to eat every single day. All I hear is her crying every night about your friend! She ripped all the letters he's ever given her into pieces, and taped them all back together, crying whenever she reads them again. She looks at their couple ring everyday. She punches the teddy bear from him and the stuffing is almost coming out of it. Even when she tries to hold just a plain spoon, she bursts into tears. I hear her in the bathroom everyday, crying, when she's washing her face. Now let me talk to him or our relationship is done. Taking care of Chorong unnie is my only priority."

A pause.

"Fine."

There was rustling over the phone. 

"Naeun?"

"Yah Nam Woohyun!"

"Tell Chorong I'm sorry.."

"I can't even mention your name in front of her, or she'll burst out into a fit of tears!"

Silence. 

"I'm sorry."

A coughing fit filled Naeun's ear over the phone. 

"Oppa.. Are you okay?" 

"Come over to Myungsoo's house, I'll explain everything there."

~~~~~~~

"What?" Naeun breathed. 

"Please.." Woohyun stopped Naeun from leaving. "Don't tell her,"

"Yah, Nam Woohyun!" She screamed. "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

"Naeun, calm down.." Myungsoo tried. 

"BOTH OF YOU!" Naeun screamed. "You-You hid that from me for months?! How could you?!"

"I couldn't let her know, it would have been harder to let her go.." Woohyun exhaled, dejected. 

"I can't believe you." Naeun glared at her boyfriend. "You hid this from me too?"

"Naeun, please understand," Myungsoo tried. 

She shook her head, "No."

"Son Naeun." Woohyun loudly called her name. 

Naeun stopped in front of the door. 

"Do you think it'll help if you tell Chorong? Do you think it'll make her feel any better?" He took a wobbly step towards her. 

"Do you think you'll cure her depression? Do you think that it will do any good to her? Do you think I'll be able to face her again?" He shakily clenched his fist tightly. 

"Do you think that everything will turn out for the better in the end? Do you think that she'll stop crying?!" His questions gradually increased in volume. 

Naeun stood in place, frozen. He was right, and she couldn't deny it. 

"Do you think I'd be able to let her go if she was by my side?"

~~~~~~~

Even without telling her, Chorong's condition worsened. She had dark circles under her eyes, she lost 20 pounds, and she just seemed to drag herself everywhere. 

Three more months passed since Naeun's conversation with Woohyun. Her, Woohyun, and Myungsoo often talked about Chorong's condition, but recently Naeun hadn't received any calls from him. 

"Myungsoo?"

"Yes?"

"Where is Woohyun oppa?"

A long silence. 

"Myungsoo oppa? Is everything alright?!"

"He's-He's in the hospital."

"What?!"

"Can you come here..with Chorong?" 

"Kim Myungsoo, do you know what you're asking?"

"I'm positive."

"Alright."

Naeun mustered up the courage to tell Chorong. 

"Unnie?" Chorong turned her head slowly from the couch. Her skinny arms wrapped around her knees with the teddy bear next to her feet. 

"Hm?" She said, weakly. 

"I have something to tell you about.. Woohyun oppa."

Chorong in a deep breath. It hurt to hear even that name. 

"C-Continue.." Her voice broke as she tried to stay strong. 

"I think it would be best if you came with me." Naeun pulled the older up and led her to the bedroom. 

"Here, wear this," Naeun gave her a plain t-shirt and jeans to change into. Chorong took the clothes and changed slowly, unable to process the fact that Naeun said his name in front of her. 

In 15 minutes they reached the hospital and Naeun ran in, Chorong trailing behind her, looking for Myungsoo. 

"Naeun?" Myungsoo walked through the hallway door. 

"Where is he?"

"Hi, Myungsoo." Chorong said, dully. 

"Hi noona," He tried his best to smile. 

"He's up on the third floor," He whispered to his girlfriend. 

~~~~~~~~~

Woohyun covered his head with a red knitted hat. It was embarrasing, especially when the hat didn't have anything to be put on top of. Three rounds of chemotherapy ensured that he would no longer have any more hair, the hair that Chorong always used to love to play with. 

Myungsoo told him that Naeun and Chorong would come to finally reveal the secret. 

He got into a fight with him, trying to pursuade him not to bring them, but Myungsoo was stronger  than him now. 

~~~~

Naeun walked right next to Myungsoo as they neared the room Woohyun was in. Chorong, however, still had no clue about Woohyun's condition.

With a twisted feeling in her stomach, Chorong peered over to see the medical report sheet and her eyes widened. The door opened and shut, indicating Naeun and Myungsoo's entrance into Woohyun's room. She grasped the paper and looked at it with pure disbelief.

Her first love was dying by the second.

Chorong ran into the room, her eyes darting from Myungsoo to Naeun to Woohyun.

"Woohyun.." She whispered and wobbled over to him.

He was unnaturally pale, thin, and frail. A red beanie covered his bald head, his hospital gowns hung loose on him. Despite every negative factor, the light in his eyes never seemed to die out.

"I'm sorry," He whispered,

Woohyun took notice of how dangerously thin she was. Her eyes sunk in, dark circles making her entire face look tired and lifeless, yet he still found her to be beautiful.

"Y-you," She tried to act strong. "H-how could you?"

Chorong covered and fell to her knees, sobbing, right by the edge of his bed. He lightly stepped down from the bed and held her tightly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He whispered into her ears.

"I hate you," She hit his chest weakly. "I hate you, Nam Woohyun," 

Tears covered his gown in seconds, but he didn't mind at all.

"I only have two mor-" He started.

"No," She sobbed. "You can't leave me again!"

He lifted her chin and kissed her on the lips. The tasted of medicine filled and more tears escaped her eyes. 

To him, however, it was like being on heaven again. She still smelled like her sweet strawberry shampoo and he could faintly taste the peach of her tinted lip balm.

"Who said I ever planned on leaving you?" He smiled and broke the kiss.

------------

In his final days, Woohyun started to see a huge improvement in Chorong's condition. 

She was smiling at him all the time, and she even ate food with him. Chorong was no longer dragging life along; she was alive once more. 

"You cannot sleep with the patient, miss," The nurse would scold her. 

"Yeah yeah yeah," Myungsoo and Naeun would "" her out of the room to leave Chorong and Woohyun alone. 

She woke up next to his bedridden body every single day. Chorong could feel his ribs sticking out and his bony hands when they interlocked fingers. 

"I'm fine," He told her and planted a kiss on her temple. 

And she believed him. 

"Rong, would you mind helping me up? I want to walk around again," He asked her. 

She nodded and got out of bed immediately, helping Woohyun stand up. 

"Let's go." She smiled and held his arm tightly. 

He weakly smiled back and they went down the elevator to walk to the garden. 

"If I die, I don't want to be in that hospital room," He randomly said as they walked to the elevator. 

"Then where?" She blankly stared ahead, not wanting to hear anything pertaining to death. 

"In your arms,"

"I'll try my best," She whispered and escorted him down. 

The doors to the peaceful courtyard garden opened and the couple sat down together on the soft green grass. She leaned her head on his bony shoulder and sighed. This was the closest to peace that she had in the past 6 months. 

The past eight days with Woohyun were like paradise. Although he could no longer take her on dates, the love and affection he showed for Chorong was like a fairy tale, but none of them wanted it to end. 

"It's nice, isn't it?" He smiled. "It reminds me of our first date," 

Chorong nodded. The sickly scent of antiseptics, medicine, and over cleanliness masked Woohyun's usual clean, sweet scent and she hated it. She hated every aspect of hospitals.

It still bothered her, since she still refused to believe that her boyfriend was dying. 

"I-" He started, but erupted into a coughing fit. 

"Woohyun!" Chorong yelled as he continued coughing and hacking until it turned into blood coming out of his mouth. 

"NO!" She screamed. Her boyfriend was slipping away from her with every passing second. 

"I want to die in your arms"

Chorong continuously shook his shoulders, but there was no response from him. She took him in her arms and tapped his face lightly, desperate for any response or movement from him. 

She felt something faint touching her hand. Woohyun was tracing a heart on it. 

"Please.." She rasped. He squeezed her hand once more and pointed to a pocket on his hospital gown. What it meant, Chorong had no idea. 

"I guess this is it," He mentally chuckled.

Through the last minute of his life, the memories of him and Chorong flooded through his head. 

The first was when Woohyun tried to teach Chorong how to cook something other than chicken feet. She was undeniably happy and cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for him the following day, while she stubbornly ate chicken feet. 

The second memory was when they stayed in a beach house during the summer and a water fight erupted between the two. Woohyun picked her up and spun her around until they both were dizzy. They layed down next to each other on the warm sand and shared their first kiss on a warm sunny day.  

His third memory was when Chorong and him attended Sunggyu and Eunji's wedding. Everyone was teasing them, saying they were the next to get married. He assured himself that he would propose to Chorong as soon as possible. 

His last memory was when he was told that he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. His heart stopped beating for what seemed like five years. He would die and he would have to break up with her. He would have to leave her alone in this world. Going home that day, he took out a long sheet of paper and started writing to her. An apology letter. Crumbled paper balls missed the trash can as he threw them, his eyes blurred by tears. 

The emergency nurses ran through the door. 

"SAVE HIM!" Chorong screamed. They picked him up on a stretcher quickly. 

The surgeon immediately took action and went into operation. Chorong, Myungsoo, and Naeun waited for three hours, not moving an inch. The couple knew, however, that Nam Woohyun's time here on Earth was over. Chorong refused to believe it. 

The light blinked once more and turned off. She immediately rose to her feet. 

"I'm sorry." 

Chorong widened her eyes as the stretcher rolled out of the operation room, everything covered in a white cloth except for his head. 

"No." She whispered and ran over to the stretcher. 

"NAM WOOHYUN!" She screamed. 

The doctor, nurses, and the young couple left Chorong to face reality by herself. 

His eyes were closed, as if he was peacefully sleeping. 

"Wake up!" She desperately cried. "Don't joke around with me. Wake up!"

"You.. Babo.." She sobbed and hit his chest. "How could you just leave me?"

"Chorong, it's time to leave." Myungsoo came up from behind with Naeun. 

"I can't," She shook her head. "No,"

"Unnie.." Naeun tried. 

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" She yelled. "BOTH OF YOU GET OUT!

Myungsoo pulled the frozen Naeun out of the room. 

Shs fell to her knees and sobbed, clutching her heart, unable to catch her breath. The pain was too much. She lost the light in her life. 

"Give this to her," The doctor handed Myungsoo a letter. 

"What is this?"

"I found it in his gown pocket." The doctor explained. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Myungsoo nodded and bowed to the retreating doctor.

~~~

The door opened and Myungsoo stood up immediately. Chorong walked through the room. Her eyes puffy from excessive crying. 

"Noona.." Myungsoo walked towards her. "The doctor told me to give this to you.."

She took the letter slowly. Her name was written neatly on the envelop and she recognized his hand writing immediately. 

Chorong tried to hold the tears back as she opened the envelope.

She took the letter out of the envelope and Naeun stood up. 

"What does it say?"

Chorong scanned the letter quickly. Her eyes quickly became blurred as tears welled up in her eyes. 

"Dear Chorong,

If you're reading this letter, I am no longer with you. 

First off, I would like to apologize. Apologize for hurting you to the point where you fell into depression. I only did it for your own benefit, but it only worsened it.

Next, I would like to apologize for not being able to tell you my condition. With your condition, as Naeun told me, I didn't want to worry and stress you out anymore. I kept a low profile and sort of disappeared from society. I thought it would be too hard to say goodbye, but I was terribly wrong. I can now leave this lifetime knowing that you have people who will protect and take care of you, since I am no longer capable of doing that. 

I also hope that you know that I love you so much. I always did love you, when I first laid my eyes on you, and I will never stop loving you, even when I'm not by your side.

Thank you for all the memories you've given me, all the moments (and kisses) we shared, and the undeniable love you trusted me with. For that, I will never be able to repay you. I just hope that my love for you will last enough. 

Can you do me one last favor, Rong? Please do not be depressed because I am not here. Live your life, every single second of it. I know I'm irresistible, but try not to think of me too often. Go out and meet some other guys, alright? (but i need to approve!) I promise I will visit you in your dreams everyday, so don't worry. I'm not telling you to forget everything that we made or throw out our memories, but rather, take them, cherish them, and remember the love between us. 

Don't forget to close the windows before you leave the house, check the oven to see if its on, or to eat chicken feet. Remember to visit Sunggyu hyung and Eunji and help them around the house, and that baby that's coming soon. Keep your self and your body safe, healthy, and strong (I'm holding Naeun accountable!).

Remember, don't ever hesitate to ask Sunggyu hyung for anything, since I'm not here. I'll see you in heaven when the time is right. Remember that I am always watching over you and protecting you. I love you, forever. Please don't ever forget that. 

Sincerely, 
Nam Woohyun"

Chorong couldn't finish from an overflow of her emotions. Tears flowed down her cheeks uncontrollably. Naeun was silently sobbing into Myungsoo's chest. Even cold hearted Myungsoo was in tears. 

"I promise I'll make you proud,"

~~~~~~~~

I'll go out with my friends and I'll meet other guys. I'll eat well and even drink a little alcohol. But the funny thing is, I've done everything I can, but forgetting you is something I can't do.